31 December 2013

it's been a long year --- dead parents, dead job, but a whole lotta stress slowly evaporating --- onward and upward, glad for the people i know and love ---

after an excellent afternoon in assisi, back to cannara to celebrate new years eve with lots of our own fireworks --- ate lentils at midnight, which is a neapolitan version of our black-eyed peas on new years day --- i missed being with robert on this day for the first time in nearly 20 years

29 December 2013

mouth of the cloaca maxima, the roman sewer begun six centuries before christ --- not too good for the tiber river, but one of the first sewers in the world

view of the palatine hill from the aventine hill across the circo massimo (where they're having a big-ass concert on new years eve)

s, giovanni in laterano, which is technically part of the vatican

in the upper part of the baldacchino at giovanni laterano are supposed to be parts of the heads of peter and paul --- unfortunately recent dna tests have shown that the peter head does not match the remains at st. peter's basilica, which archeology has purty much proved are those of the saint --- somebody pulled a fast one on the pope

these are the original 2nd-century bronze doors to the roman curia (interior and exterior sides) installed at laterano in the 17th century

the gilded columns here, also at laterano, were taken from the roman temple of jupiter optimus maximus on the capitoline

among the many relics (including the true cross, which history suggest apparently contained enough wood to build a small house) that constantine's mother acquired in the 3rd city were the scala santa, the holy stairs, taken from the palace of pontius palace and upon which jesus walked --- can't believe they leave them out in the rain

s. pietro in vincoli displays the chains with which peter was bound in jerusalem and in rome --- when brought together god knows when they miraculously fused into a single chain and have been venerated for over 15 centuries

the catholics do spooky memorials real good

by far the best thing today was basilica di san clemente al laterno, but they allowed no photography --- it's a 12th century church built over a 4th century church ruined by the normans, itself built over a building that possibly dated to republican rome --- in the 1st or 2nd century it was adapted for worship of mithras, one of the major influences on early christianity --- down, down, down, with the sound of running water from a spring overhead --- i don't think i've seen anything quite so awesome

like the crowds on the corso this afternoon and the lines at the vatican and everywhere else, the beggars here are of "biblical proportion," as frances puts it --- this bronze is at the front of a church --- notice the nice warm gloves and scarf someone has offered

a long day: the vatican museum and st peters (including climbing the dome) --- crazy long ticket lines all over --- i don't understand why people don't get tickets beforehand since that saves a ton of time ---

my favorite thing at st. pete's was the medieval statue of peter, all detail on his right foot worn absolutely smooth from a thousand years of pilgrims kissing and rubbing it --- it is one of the few things salvaged from constantine's basilica --- other remnants in the crypt, but most of it (as was too much at the forum, the vatican, and elsewhere) could only be glimpsed through barriers ---

the colosseum was absolutely over-run with people and i found it very depressing, knowing it as a place where thousands of people were killed and god knows how many animals slaughtered for entertainment --- hundreds of ostriches, e.g., decapitated with arrows ---

santa maria sopra minerva, the only gothic church interior left in rome

theater of marcellus

2nd century CE Roman copy of a dying persian 3rd century BCE original from pergamum

broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime― mark twain

truly, what of good

ever have prophets brought to men?

craft of many words,

only through

evil your message speaks.

seers bring aye

terror, so to keep

men afraid.

―

aeschylus

he cannot be a gentleman which loveth not a dog.

john northbrooke, c. 1570

Each of us is all the sums he has not counted: subtract us into nakedness and night again, and you shall see begin in Crete four thousand years ago the love that ended yesterday in Texas.

The seed of our destruction will blossom in the desert, the alexin of our cure grows by a mountain rock, and our lives are haunted by a Georgia slattern, because a London cutpurse went unhung. Each moment is the fruit of forty thousand years. The minute-winning days, like flies, buzz home to death, and every moment is a window on all time.

I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it.

john stuart mill in a letter to conservative mp sir john pakington (march 1866)